When reading Spanish, as a native English speaker, many times it is easy to read the words and have an idea of how to pronounce them. Most letters are pronounced similar in both languages. The beauty of Spanish is that letters and combinations of letters are always pronounced the same. What you see is what you get when it comes to reading Spanish.
There are some words in Spanish that have letter combinations that are similar to ones that we see in English but are pronounced differently. This activity will help you remember how to pronounce those letters. A list of the 9 letters/letter combinations is below so that you can be listening for them. Also below is a list of the words that appear in the audio passage.
Once you have listened to the passage and have a grasp of how to pronounce the words, try to come up with some words of your own that have these letter combinations. They can be names, places, etc. You'd be surprised how often we borrow words from other languages. Post text of the words in the comments and record audio of yourself using the words in a creative passage and post the audio. Make it fun!
/ge/ - as in the “he” in helpful or hem/gi/ - as in the “hee” in heel or the “he” in here /gue/ -as in the “ge” in get or the “gue” in guest/gui/ - as in the “gee” in geek /h/ - always silent when preceded by vowel as in honor/j/ - always pronounced like the /h/ in English, as in the /h/ in happy /ll/ - always pronounced like "y" in English as in the "y" in yellow/que/ - as in the “ke” in Kevin /qui/ - as in the “kee” in keep/ñ/ - as in the “nio” in onion
Geraldo, gila monster, Miguel, quiero, Aguilera, quesadillas, jalapeños, fajitas, hasta la vista
There are some words in Spanish that have letter combinations that are similar to ones that we see in English but are pronounced differently. This activity will help you remember how to pronounce those letters. A list of the 9 letters/letter combinations is below so that you can be listening for them. Also below is a list of the words that appear in the audio passage.
Once you have listened to the passage and have a grasp of how to pronounce the words, try to come up with some words of your own that have these letter combinations. They can be names, places, etc. You'd be surprised how often we borrow words from other languages. Post text of the words in the comments and record audio of yourself using the words in a creative passage and post the audio. Make it fun!
/ge/ - as in the “he” in helpful or hem /gi/ - as in the “hee” in heel or the “he” in here
/gue/ -as in the “ge” in get or the “gue” in guest /gui/ - as in the “gee” in geek
/h/ - always silent when preceded by vowel as in honor /j/ - always pronounced like the /h/ in English, as in the /h/ in happy
/ll/ - always pronounced like "y" in English as in the "y" in yellow /que/ - as in the “ke” in Kevin
/qui/ - as in the “kee” in keep /ñ/ - as in the “nio” in onion
Geraldo, gila monster, Miguel, quiero, Aguilera, quesadillas, jalapeños, fajitas, hasta la vista